Rough idle

[85 GN man]

Okay,
Bought my car a couple of years ago and generally runs pretty good although not always depending on weather.
Car came out of Buffalo, NY although originally from Florida and appears it may have been raced at some point.
Car has upgraded ingnition module and what appears to be the original MAF. turbo replaced,(not sure with what)
up and down pipes not stock. car had the following other upgrades
converter 800 higher stall than stock from what I was told.
A/F pillar mounted gauge
Boost/vaccumn pillar mounted gauge
Dakota digital dash.
Adjustable FPR with gauge
The one big question I have is " when the car is idling rough and lean and wants to stall the Air intake sounds like its starving for air and sometimes will stall, other times will idle for 15 minutes in the driveway with no problems.
I have followed reset IAC procedure and adjusted TPS accordingly
and installed a new Turbo tweak 5.7 chip runs better but not perfect.
What is causing the occasional "whooooosing of air prior to stalling

 

[Toby_Goodmk]

what are your O2 readings as the car is running rough? Does it ever warm up into closed loop by throttling the car to keep it running? Sounds like vacuum leaks, and also MAF issues.

 

[85 GN man]

Toby, I do not have any scan tool, I know getting one installed should be priority to figuring this out.
To answer your question.. yes sometimes it will stay running fine and other times if it is running rough I can keep it running
with a little throttle. I'm pretty sure I have a vacuum leak at the intake manifold although the vacuum/boost gauge when idling is showing around 15 on the vacuum. I'm wondering if the MAF acts up occasionally and not always which could be the primary cause. Probably wont figure it out till I upgrade to newer ECM and install a scan master.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[Toby_Goodmk]

my guess is the old MAF is tired. Trying to trouble shoot without a scan tool of any sort is very difficult to do and you could be replacing many parts which may not be needed. However with all this being said, IMO all the old needs to go, and the new needs to come in. But, it does start with a SM....but to get a SM to work correct you need the ECM, which you need a chip....then may as well upgrade the MAF, which a translator is needed....then if you get a new MAF, may as well upgrade to CAI....then you have more AIR...why not upgrade the chip to larger injectors...so you need injectors....then comes the power logger....wideband, etc....lol!!!

oh, and that whistling sound...that is normal. Ill post a vid of my 84 with all kinds of add on equip and it sounds like a jet at startup and warming up...then quietly going away as the engine warms

 

[85 GN man]

Toby, thanks for all the feedback.
I agree and plan on doing most of what you had mentioned, although right now I'm installing new shocks, rear springs,
plugs, wires, & idler arm, Trying to tighten her up a little, suspension wise. Next 500.00 bucks or so will go for
newer ECM, chip and scan master, never ending apparently.
I look forward to seeing your video and I will try to do the same over this weekend, weather is supposed to break here in new York.

 

[Toby_Goodmk]

take a listen and watch the 02 readout on the scanmaster increase towards 800. Now granted my ecm was unplugged so block learn is still taking affect.